Breaking the Parenting Rules
I’ve already broken all kinds of rules that parents follow, such as not taking him out of the house by a certain time. The kid and I went for a walk on day two in the home. Keep the baby out of the sun… well in my mind some sun can’t hurt (plus have you seen how white this kid is)… Keep the house calm and quiet in order to not stress the baby out… We keep the house active and at normal volumes so he can get use to sleeping that way. I’m sure there are many other things that seasoned parents would shun me out of their parent play groups for saying, such as he’s only 5 weeks, and I had him sit in a Bumbo today, or We took him to the zoo when he was shy of 4 weeks old. But the thing is… it’s my turn to learn from my mistakes as every other parent has. So far, I haven’t injured him, and I don’t think I’ve put him in harm (except just being around people in general), but my thoughts are this… if I expose him to as much as possible up front (sounds, colors, smells) then he may develop faster from the different stimuli he’s experiencing… Who knows? Definitely not me…. but it sounds good right? Here’s my main thing… I refuse to be the dad who’s scared to put his son out there. Not in harms way, but just out there for experience. And Continue Reading →
Posted in Uncategorizedwith 3 comments.
Eat Sleep Poop… Repeat
Let me start off by saying, this is an amazing feeling. Holding this little person in my arms and being able to calm him down and put him to sleep with my soothing hums or superior swaddle skills… these are the moments that parents constantly talk about. Seeing that face our baby makes when he’s hungry, or his little poop face (that has been referred to as Blue Steel), *Zoolander Reference? Check…* that poop face this kid makes is priceless. I mean seriously… that’s the pose of a natural model… Being a father for 5 weeks, I don’t have answers to all the parenting questions, nor do I have many tips for guys going through what I am at this stage of babyism, but I do already have my own experience. It’s such a very specific experience that I know once we have another baby, that will be a complete separate experience from this experience I’m having right this moment! Still following me? Well I can only explain it in these terms… Babies don’t do much but eat, sleep, poop, and repeat, but since baby JR is our first born, everything we do as parents is brand new. Everything is our first time seeing these actions in action. It’s literally just he, the wife, and I in the house, so all of our attention is on the baby, and so everything is new to us. Breastfeeding, pumping, the new looking poops, belly buttons falling off, baths, laughs, figuring out what calms him down, Continue Reading →
Posted in Parenthoodwith 3 comments.
My Needs, Her Wants…
Need and Want are two totally different words with two totally different meanings. However, as a society, we’ve started mixing the meaning of them up in such a manner, that it’s hard to decipher the difference of the two on an instinctual level, as well as an emotional level. Huh? Well, when a man says “I’m starving,” does he want or need food? Most likely he wants food. The human body actually has enough reserve of fat for energy to last an average man 2 weeks without food as long as he has water… hell Ghandi lasted 21 days. But if you asked that man at 10 pm after a long day of standing in line and chasing children in Disneyland if he was hungry, he’d probably tell you he needs to eat. When a woman says I need a pedicure, or I need to get my hair done, well in her mind, she is so rugged, that she in fact believes her want is a need. But the determination between want and need aren’t so easy sometimes. Sometimes want and need do in fact work hand in hand. For instance when you tell a child, “I need you to understand what I am saying to you” and “I want you to understand me,” that comes from the same place in your heart, where you are overall saying, “what I am saying to you is of the utmost importance… please let this soak in.” Well, I have my wants, and I have my needs, Continue Reading →
Posted in Parenthood, The Puzzle Piecewith 10 comments.
It Takes a Village
Just this morning I came across a blog post about a woman who was arrested for letting her 9-year old play unsupervised at the park… a public park. The charge was “unlawful conduct towards a child,” and really all the facts surrounding it are not really needed to be said such as the mother’s color, job, social class… however, in the articles, all of that is mentioned. What is important is this… an adult approached this 9-year old child, asked where her mother is, found out her mother was at work, and then deemed it appropriate to call the police resulting in the end result of her child be taken into custody into the department of social services. I am a father of just 2-months now. I have no extensive background on the whole picture of parenting. I don’t claim to be an expert when it comes to raising children. In fact I bite my tongue often when I think that “someone’s doing it wrong,” because it’s not my place to say anything… unless that child is in eminent danger. But you know what I am… a human being. That’s right. I’m a 32-year-old human being. I was a child once. I learned to ride bikes, and was aloud a ride bike down the street and in our cul-de-sac unsupervised. Then I met up friends, and we climbed trees, and went to the park. I had a skateboard, which I rode by myself to a friend’s house… or just to get an Continue Reading →
Posted in Dissapointment, Parenthoodwith 18 comments.
“Leave Room for Jesus!”
That’s my favorite saying when I see underage boys and girls hugging or kissing, or if I’m chaperoning a dance. Man… I just realized, I’ve chaperoned a dance. I say it cause it’s funny. Not even remotely do I believe that boys and girls should actually be leaving room for Jesus… or do I? Well to start off, if I did believe that, it definitely wouldn’t be in the physical sense of two young budding lovers, hugging up on each other–although the older I get, the more unnecessary I think the act of youth intimacy is. But what about leaving room for Jesus in your mind, your heart, or your soul? Should there be room for Jesus there? Should I introduce my son to the idea of religion? Controversy! Well let me give you my background story. I’ve mentioned before that I frequented the south to visit my dad’s side of the family. Well in the south you go to church at least 4 times a week… maybe even 2 to 3 of those times actually being on Sunday. Yes… the stereotypes are true and that’s why people joke about it. There’s the obvious Sunday mass… but sometimes you go to the 5 p.m. mass, after you’ve already attended the 7 or 8 a.m. service. Bible study on Sunday mornings. Choir practice on Thursdays. You have to go for adult choir practice too because your aunt or parent is in the choir… or maybe your cousin plays piano and organ… (and make sure Continue Reading →
Posted in Fear, Getting Ready, Those Odd moments...with 7 comments.
